I think it's an exhortation to someone with known LBA to buy a lens the rest of us would love, but can't afford!

I like it - looks vaguely sepia-ish and the treatment suits the subject.

I printed a few colour negatives on B&W paper many years ago with surprisingly decent results.

What drives me spare:

On some Royal Mail services the "track and trace" feature just tells you that the item was posted and when. Not terribly helpful when you'd actually like to know where it is in the system (and whether it's likely to turn up this morning or whether you're safe to get out early before the hordes turn up and start wandering over your carefully composed wild landscapes)!

Looking at the rig he used I'm not entirely surprised he got some decent photos! That takes real dedication and a good amount of luck though - I bet there were hundreds of blurry out-of-focus things for every perfect bat photo.

It's also quite likely to be the only 100% accurate thing on that website!

I read a thread recently by a chap who was selling a car on there, thought it had been bought, then got an email claiming the buyers cat had walked on the keyboard and they didn't want to buy it. Nobody could quite fathom how the cat had managed to click "Buy", then move the mouse to just the right place to click "confirm"...

The only Cokin "A" filters I have are some sort of half closeup thing and a sepia filter (impulse buys when I was about 15 and not terribly clued-up about photography!)

If only I'd been hunting for a full set of SMC K lenses rather than fiddling about with filters...

I'm surprised it didn't come with a neck strap - the 150-500mm does. Take it you've checked the box thoroughly?

What happens if you change the lens? That ought to solve where the gunge is! Try the 50/1.7 from your ME Super as those are very simple to check for contamination (just hold it up to the light or shine a torch through it, there are fewer places for muck to hide in these little primes than in the modern zooms).

If the marks are still there in images then your sensor needs cleaning. I've only ever had to give mine a couple of blasts with a rocket blower in the two years I've had the camera, the self-cleaning function seems to handle the rest pretty well. I never change lenses in dusty areas and always keep the camera pointing downwards while changing, which probably helps.

I think Steve might mean the way in which you now have to go through an FAQ-type menu before it'll offer you the option of just sending them an email. Or at least that's definitely the case when you're chasing up something you've bought and paid for.

I suspect the problem is that many ebayers lack, shall we say, a full deck of cards and indeed the box to keep them in. By including the FAQ ebay hope to shield sellers from people who expect the item they paid for to arrive next day even though it clearly stated in the listing that it will be sent parcel post and might take a week to arrive (for example). It's easy to forget that not everyone is as patient, understanding, and inclined to read the small print as we are!

To be honest I think I'd rather use NDs than fiddle around stacking exposures on the laptop. I know how to use an ND filter and you only need to take one shot!

Did Pentax ever offer ND filters?